Grow Your Own- Mexican Dandelion Greens

Yes, we have actually harvested some produce out of our garden. Wee hoo!







So, when Finny hosts a Grow Your Own Challenge, do I decide to use any of the actual vegetables from the actual garden?

I do not.

No. To me, it sounded like the perfect opportunity to attempt to cook dandelion greens. This is mainly because of the fact that we don't actually have enough of any one type of vegetable to make cooking them worthwhile. We have a couple ancho chilies, 10 leaves of spinach, a few jalapenos, 4 okra and a couple handfuls of tomatoes (which we're mostly just eating raw-so so good), plus some purple green beans (yes, I'm pretty sure they should be called purple beans, but, really, would you have known what I was talking about?).



We do have lots and lots of dandelions, though. Which, cook down into not as much as you'd expect.

Anyway, I found a recipe for dandelions in my favorite vegetable cookbook ever (Vegetables Every Day). But, because I am apparently unable to ever follow a recipe as written (I use them more as a starting point than anything), it was completely different. Still great, though. If you don't want to do it like mine, the original recipe just called for a couple strips of bacon instead of chorizo (and no potatoes or chipotles).



Here it is.

Ingredients
1 lb or so of dandelion leaves, washed really really well in two batches of soaking water with thick, lower part of stems removed
Anywhere from 1/2 to 1 lb Mexican chorizo (because everything tastes better with chorizo)
1 onion, diced
potatoes (how ever many are about ready to go bad in your storage container or at least that's how many I used)
salt
1 chipotle in ancho sauce, chopped super tiny small (because those pieces are hot)
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar

1. Start a big pot of water boiling. When it boils, poke the potatoes with a fork and then toss in the water. (OK, you all realize that you shouldn't actually throw the potatoes in the water, right? Just place them in there carefully.) Cook until tender.
2. While that's going, start the chorizo over medium heat. Once it's completely cooked, remove the chorizo, leaving the fat in the pan.
3. Add the onion to the chorizo fat. Add a pinch or two of salt. Cook till it's completely soft.
4. By this point the potatoes should be done. Take them out (I use one of these). Don't drain the water. Let cool a bit and chop up.
5. Bring the water back to a boil, add the dandelions and 1 teaspoon salt and cook until tender, about 6 minutes. Remove the greens, let drain, cool and chop.
6. Add the chipotle and the potatoes to the onion, cook for a bit, until the potatoes soak up some of that yummy chorizo fat.
7. Add the chorizo and dandelion, followed by the vinegar and salt to taste. Stir and cook until everything is well combined.

I served this over some homemade refried beans on tostada shells. Along with some cilantro and tomatoes from the garden. And Cotija cheese, one of the bestest cheeses ever invented. Oh yah, and sour cream smeared on the shell first so every bite has enough (although it did eventually ruin the structural integrity of the tostada shell and we had to eat these with forks).

It was worth it, though.

Also, be sure to stay tuned for more Grow Your Own. I'm totally going to exploit the fact that our youngest doesn't go to public school and have her pick crabapples for several hours tomorrow. I'll shout math problems to her while she's up in the tree so it'll count as homeschool.

Is it child labor if they're learning?